Couldn't unmount the disk

Hi,
I couldn't get through the spinning gear.
It has happened other times, and in the past I solved it by reformatting, reinstalling OS X and restoring from Time Machine.
This time, after running Disk Utility from the original Snow Leopard DVD, I get the message that UTILITY COULDN'T UNMOUNT THE DISK.
I canNOT:
- repair disk/disk permission
- initialise the disk or modify its partition
- install OSX from scratch
- restore from TM
I'm really puzzled, as I thought I saw them all!
What could I do?
Luckily, had a sort of sixth sense and have done the backup yesterday.
Note: I have a vintage MacBook Air A1237 and OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard (which was not the one originally installed, had to upgrade later).
Thanks,
Stefano

Hi Eric,
Thank you again for your answer!
Have tried to use Terminal, and also to dis/reconnect the disk physically.
Point is: this is the internal SSD!
Will do as follows:
- replace the SSD with an original Apple one (I was advised to replace it with an equivalent one at a Genius Bar by Apple staff!)
- buy the latest MacBook Air ... Can't live with a fault every two months!
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Stefano

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Pls help: I can't start my mac because I took too much space and now the disk doesn't mount

I am most certain that this is the case: foolishly, I didnt leave much free space and now the disk doesnt want to mount. I tried the single user mode, I also booted from DVD, they appear but the disk utility shows the disk but I cannot repair the disk, because it is unmounted. I tried the basic commands in single user mode, no effect either. I still cant get over the blue screen with the apple logo and a circle running. I need to free up some spasce. Unforetunately, important files were not backedup, so I really cant delete the whole disk. I need to delete specific files.
I came across this in a post:
/sbin/fsck -yf (optional, but a good idea to run a file system check. If you do this, repeat this command if any problems are found.)
/sbin/mount -uw / anables to read and write via the single user mode
/usr/bin/cd /Library/Audio
/bin/rm -R Apple\ Loops - rm is remove
(and any other deletions that you need to do here)
/sbin/reboot
The troulbe is, I dont know where are my big files located - so, how do I orientate myself among the folders? Lets say I would delete my itunes libary, which I would later on renew thanks to the back/up, how would I delete them?
Thank you very much for any advice. I really need to make it work.
Adam

adamfromcernosice wrote:
| just read that the password doesnt show while being typed - ok, but still it says "invalid argument" once being typed after the sudo rm -r. how is that possible?
Probably some error in typing. Copy the command line from Terminal and post it here, exactly as it is.
a way to install applejack or someother helpful software?
AppleJack only works on the boot disk, and only in single-user mode. IMHO, if there is a space or corruption issue on the disk, the last thing you want to do is to install new software on it.
DU once I select repair disk reports ''it could not unmount'' the disk.
If you chose the right disk, you probably have some process using files on the disk or referencing the disk. For instance, if you have Terminal open and present working directory is on the disk, DU will refuse to unmount it. Make sure you've quit all other apps before using DU. If it still refuses to unmount, you can force it in Terminal
$ diskutil unmountDisk force
and drag the disk from Finder to the Terminal window (there's a blank space after force).
could I somehow use time machine just for my original disk?
I don't know about Time Machine. I suspect you can't use it under your circumstances, but I really don't know.
how to force through adn delete some folders? I still believe that it should solve the problem, shouldnt it?
Not all problems have convenient solutions. If the file system is corrupt (which could well happen when running out of space, let alone the fact that you couldn't boot from the disk and thus the journal couldn't be replayed), then deleting files may not work or may make matters worse. We still don't know why you couldn't boot from the internal disk. It may be because there isn't enough space to create the necessary temp and ancillary files—or it may be because the file system was badly corrupted when the operating system ran out of space.
If you want to stick with it, post here the rm command, as I wrote above. It may or may not work, it may or may not delete the files you want to delete, which may or may not fix the problem. There's no guarantee. It you want to do it right, the only way is to back up everything you can and re-format the internal drive.

How do I reformat hard drive when I can't erase the disk?

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Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
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3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
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Changing Xraid name without unmounting the drives

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Help needed with delete of bootcamp partition, error message 'Couldn't unmount disk'

Hello all
Sorry if this issue has been repeated elsewhere, I did search but there wasn't a discussion relating to my specific issue.
When we bought the iMac a couple of years ago, my husband partitioned the hard drive to run Windows via Bootcamp. Having got used to the Mac and experiencing the frustration between having to reboot to access each partition I have decided to restore the Mac to factory settings and install Parallels 8 so I can continue to use Office and Coreldraw).
So having backed up all of my files, I started the Mac up holding the 'Alt' key and then loaded the Recovery HD mode followed by Disk Utility. I then selected Bootcamp and erased all data from the partition. [Note: there are 2 files left which it won't allow me to erase through this method]
I then selected the main drive and the tab 'Partition', from the layout I then selected Bootcamp and clicked the minus button. I get the message confirming which partition I am about to delete and hit remove. I then get the error message 'Partition failed: couldn't unmount disk'.
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Just to mention there is nothing left on the Mac that I want to keep, therefore if there is an easier way than having to delete the partition then happy to hear it.
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Tara

Hello Tara,
Are you using Filevault?
https://kimmo.suominen.com/blog/2013/03/file-vault-volumes-cannot-be-resized/
Also see the last few posts here...
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3894449?start=15&tstart=0

Couldn't unmount disk

OK so here's the deal, I had windows 8 installed using boot camp, Then when I went to uninstall it using boot camp, it gave me an error message, when I closed everything, I opened boot camp and the remove windows 7 option was no longer there, it was install windows 7, so I opened disk utillty and there wasn't a boot camp drive, however, when I went to partitions, boot camp wasn't there but macintosh HD didnt take up all the space and there was a grey area beneath the Macintosh HD, I dragged the Macintosh HD to the bottom and clicked apply, I got an error meassage which I solved by repairing the disk. So when I try it again, the process progresses more and then I get another error message that says couldn't unmount disk. All of this done from the Recovery partition. What Im going to do now is put mountain on an external hard drive and boot from that and try again. Guys please HELP AND REPLY PLEASE!!!!!!!!
This is the grey area I was talking about, I tried repairing macintosh HD but I still get the same message

I had a similar problem as the thread starter, and was able to fix it by making a bootable Mountain Lion Recovery Volume on a USB stick, as Courcoul suggested above (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433).
I had removed bootcamp and the associated partition from my Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion, and I wanted to reallocate that space on the hard drive to my main Mac partition.
The bootcamp assistant had failed halfway through the process, and it could not extend the partition to include the unallocated space ("partition failed"). It had also created errors on my main Mac volume (when scanning with Disk Utility).
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2) So Finally, when booting from the recovery USB stick, and using Disk Utility, I was able to resize the main partition to the full size of the hard drive.
I think the error "couldnt unmount disk" was due to the fact that somewhere in the process it said it was trying to "relocate the recovery partition". So I assume that if you boot from this recovery partition on the drive, it cannot do this part, and the process fails.
Thank you all very much! Your comments were really helpful. I hope my explanation is useful to someone with the same problem.

Disk Utility "Couldn't unmount disk" in Recovery Mode

Hello, everyone. I'm dealing with a 15" MacBook Pro (April 2010) which seems to be unwilling to reformat its own hard drive. After several issues, the hard drive started giving the "Incorrect number of threads" error when Disk Utility's Repair Disk was run from within the Recovery Partition, after which, the computer refused to boot normally, going through a 'status bar' for a long time before shutting itself down.
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You have hardware problems.
Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store.
Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.
Keeping your confidential data secure during hardware repair
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Partition error. couldn't unmount disk

I new buy mac mini 2012. I have osx mountain lion.
When I create a partition get error "Partition Error". "Couldn't unmount disk"
I haven't OS now. Because I removed its.
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And I'cant see Recover HD.
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When I browse for Image I see Recover HD.
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is there any internet issue, i got connected on my institute's wi-fi (excellent speed- 54mbps)

I wanted to create two partitions on my iMac w/ Lion using a Recovery USB i created using Lion Recovery Disk Assistant but I keep getting Partition failed message saying "couldn't unmount disk"

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admench wrote:
Thanks for your continued help Tony. Do you mean normal boot into the regular operating system setting i.e. no keys held down in bootup? I think I have tried this, with the same result.
Yes, that's what I meant. If that doesn't work, verify that you have a G.U.I.D. partition scheme (you probably do):

Time Machine error: could not backup, Disk Utility Error: Couldn't unmount disk

I recently bought a WD for Mac 1TB external drive which has been set up as Time Machine. This was as a result of my internal hard drive failing and being replaced. Time machine has worked a treat for last 3 weeks, but today I get a message:
Time Machine could not complete the backup.
Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while creating the backup folder.
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Verifying volume “My Passport for Mac”
Checking file systemError: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
I click on the Repair Disk and get this message:
Verify and Repair volume “My Passport for Mac”
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Why would I need to reboot the whole computer?
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I have my Aperture Library on a 2TB External Seagate Drive, so that I can use it with both my iMac and MBP. It's been running really slowly lately, so I ran Disk Utility on it to Verify and Repair, and just got the error message "Couldn't Unmount Disk". Help, please! I have backup vaults, but they are months old because this has been so slow and I just got lazy. Ouch.
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It seems like the EXT HD has a problem and hopefully not Aperture.
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How to Erase Hard Drive Mac OS X (LION) "Couldn't unmount disk"

Hi Everyone,
I've just transferred my data to a new computer and now need to erase the hard drive on my old one.. I've tried Disk Utility, increased the security, and tried 'erase' but I keep getting an error message "couldn't unmount disk". I've gone into Partitions and tried deleting the HD there as well but I get the same message. Does anyone know the solution for this? I just want to get the computer securely wiped and would like to keep Lion as the operating system.
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Frank,
Thanks for the quikc response. I booted up in the Recovery Disk I believe. I held option at boot up and chose the recovery disk option. Is that the correct method?
I may have figured out what I was doing wrong. I was clicking on the parent hard drive reading "1 TB WDC WD1001Fals..." Now I've clicked on the next level hard drive "Macintosh HD" and I believe it is working.
Looks like 5 hours to erase...

Couldn't unmount the disk

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